Identifying an imposter account in a social network

A computer program product for identifying an imposter account in a social network, the computer program product comprising:

• a tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, causes a processor to:
• monitor user accounts of a social network;
• identify attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network;
• match the attributes associated with each of he user accounts of the social network;
• determine, based on matching the attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network, when at least one of the user accounts is suspected of being an imposter account associated with identity theft of a victim account;
• and
• execute an action against the suspected imposter account in response to the suspected imposter account initiating an activity with a connection of the victim account.

A method for identifying an imposter account in a social network, the method comprising operating a computer that is:

• monitoring user accounts of a social network;
• identifying attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network;
• determining, based on matching the attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network, when at least one of the user accounts is suspected to be an imposter account associated with identity theft of a victim account;
• and
• executing an authentication process of the suspected imposter account to prevent the identity theft of the victim account by the suspected imposter account.

A system for identifying an imposter account in a social network, the system comprising a server to connect with the social network, the server comprising:

• a processor;
• memory accessible to the processor;
• an interface for the processor to communicate with the social network;
• wherein the processor, using the memory, implements all of:
• a monitoring engine to monitor user accounts of a social network, including during creation of user accounts;
• an identifying engine to identify attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network;
• a matching engine to match the attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network;
• a determining engine to determine, based on matching the attributes associated with each of the user accounts of the social network, when at least one of the user accounts is suspected to be an imposter account associated with identity theft of a victim account;
• a threshold calculator to calculate a threshold indicating a number of rules that are to be triggered before executing an authentication process;
• and
• an executing engine, based on a number of rules that are triggered exceeding the calculated threshold, to execute an authentication process of the suspected imposter account to prevent the identity theft of the victim account by the suspected imposter account.